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Daily and Seasonal Feeding Activity of the Greater Mole-Rat (Spalax microphtalmus, Rodentia, Spalacidae)

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Abstract

The activity of the greater mole-rat was studied using a new technique. New data have been obtained on the characteristics of the daily and seasonal underground life of mole-rats in an isolated population in Mordovia. Polyphase daily activity is most pronounced in the spring and early fall periods. In spring, the maximum activity (about 20% of all daily registrations in separate hours) is confined to the periods from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. The peak of activity in the early fall was recorded from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. At night, the activity of animals in different seasons was stably low. The burrowing activity, as a rule, began after midnight and stopped in the morning before 5:00 a.m. The maximum duration of the dormancy period in the evening in summer months was five hours. Statistically significant differences were obtained for the average number of passages of mole-rats in the burrow per day for different months using the Mann‒Whitney criterion (p < 0.05).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to colleagues and field research assistants A.S. Lapshin and G.F. Salmov for assistance in work. He is also grateful to A.Yu. Puzachenko and N.A. Formozov for valuable advice and comments on improving the manuscript at the stage of its preparation for publishing.

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  1. Mordovian National Research State University, 430000, Saransk, Russia

    A. V. Andreychev

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Andreychev, A.V. Daily and Seasonal Feeding Activity of the Greater Mole-Rat (Spalax microphtalmus, Rodentia, Spalacidae). Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 46, 1172–1181 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359019090012

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